The big question isn’t whether the Universe is expanding at 67 or 73 km/s/Mpc. It’s why different methods yield such different answers.
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Too many companies fail to recognize that “the deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated” — but the solution is easy.
Leap day only comes once every four years, including in 2024. But the reason we have it, including when we do and don’t, may surprise you.
Ever since the start of the hot Big Bang, time ticks forward as the Universe expands. But could time ever run backward, instead?
For some reason, when we talk about the age of stars, galaxies, and the Universe, we use “years” to measure time. Can we do better?
The sharpest optical images, for now, come from the Hubble Space Telescope. A ground-based technique can make images over 100 times sharper.
End of life patients face mental health challenges uniquely existential and spiritual in nature — but psychedelics are emerging as a possible solution to relieve the suffering.
It’s been 100 years since we discovered that the Universe was expanding. But if it’s expanding, then what is it expanding into?
Despite the Sun’s high core temperatures, particles can’t quite overcome their mutual electric repulsion. Good thing for quantum physics!
What do we mean by a black hole’s size? A photon sphere? The minimal stable orbit? The event horizon? The singularity? Which one is right?
We thought the Big Bang started it all. Then we realized that something else came before, and it erased everything that existed prior.
The zero-point energy of empty space is not zero. Even with all the physics we know, we have no idea how to calculate what it ought to be.
From physics and alchemy to theology and eschatology, Isaac Newton’s research was rooted in a personal pursuit of the Divine.
The anthropic principle has fascinating scientific uses, where the simple fact of our existence holds deep physical lessons. Don’t abuse it!
Three fundamental forces matter inside an atom, but gravity is mind-bogglingly weak on those scales. Could extra dimensions explain why?
There’s a big difference between the notions of ‘false vacuum’ and ‘true vacuum’ states. Here’s why we don’t want to live in the former.
Einstein’s “happiest thought” led to General Relativity’s formulation. Would a different profound insight have led us forever astray?
A researcher explains a little-known niche within modern physics: animal collective behavior.
A new book envisions an encounter of minds between the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, the physicist Werner Heisenberg, and the philosopher Immanuel Kant.
A clock, designed and built in Europe, ran hopelessly at the wrong rate when brought to America. The physics of gravity explains why.
Can quantum computers do things that standard, classical computers can’t? No. But if they can calculate faster, that’s quantum supremacy.
Quantum mechanics has taught us that even empty space contains energy. “Negative energy” is the state of having less energy than empty space.
Plants at room temperature show properties we had only seen near absolute zero.
In a psychedelic state, the relationship between your “narrative” and “minimal” selves seems to transform in unique ways.
In 1974, Stephen Hawking showed that even black holes don’t live forever, but emit radiation and eventually evaporate. Here’s how.
In general relativity, matter and energy curve spacetime, which we experience as gravity. Why can’t there be an “antigravity” force?
In the early stages of our Solar System, there were three life-friendly planets: Venus, Earth, and Mars. Only Earth thrived. Here’s why.
The Universe gravitates so that normal matter and General Relativity alone can’t explain it. Here’s why dark matter beats modified gravity.
If someone can make you feel insecure, incomplete, and inadequate, they then can present themselves as the solution you need.
If there are three neutrino species, all with different masses, then how is energy conserved when they oscillate from one flavor to another?